Featured Studies

Disadvantaged urban workers often find themselves in a double bind. They may be qualified for many entry-level jobs, but have no way of reaching suburban employment centers; they may also be easily able to reach many jobs nearby, but lack the qualifications for them. These statements describe the interconnected problems of spatial mismatch and skills mismatch. This project studied the current state of spatial and skills mismatch in the Twin Cities region, as well as coordination between transit planning and workforce development and opportunities to improve that coordination.

Accessibility, a measure that examines both land use and transportation systems, is the ease of reaching valued destinations. The Access Across America series, begun in 2013, measures accessibility to jobs via various modes of transportation in major metropolitan areas across the United States. Projects in the series are conducted by the University of Minnesota's Accessibility Observatory with funding from CTS and the National Accessibility Evaluation pooled-fund study.

To help teen drivers stay safe on the road, researchers at the U of M’s HumanFIRST Laboratory have developed the Teen Driver Support System, a smartphone-based system that provides in-vehicle feedback to teens.

The Transitway Impacts Research Program answers questions about the economic, travel, and community impacts of transitway corridors in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. The program was launched in 2006 by the Hennepin County-University of Minnesota partnership and has grown to include a mix of funding partners and program supporters.

This project developed and demonstrated an automated truck stop management system that can determine the number of occupied parking spaces at Minnesota Department of Transportation safety rest areas. The system uses a network of cameras to monitor parking availability at truck stops, automatically identifying available spaces in real time and notifying drivers and carriers about parking availability.

For people unable to use a personal vehicle—older adults, persons with disabilities, persons with low incomes, and others—the lack of adequate transportation services is a barrier for fulfilling many basic needs, especially in rural areas. Transit services are too often fragmented and difficult for users to navigate. One way to improve these services and reduce operating costs is through coordination across agencies and providers.

Large public investments in state transportation infrastructure–such as new freeway interchanges, highways, or transit stations–can increase the value of adjacent private land, sometimes substantially. Capturing the value of this benefit through various tools is gaining interest as a finance mechanism for infrastructure investments. In this study, a team of researchers examined the policy implications of value capture.